Peter Foster is the Telegraph's US Editor based in Washington DC. He moved to America in January 2012 after three years based in Beijing, where he covered the rise of China. Before that, he was based in New Delhi as South Asia correspondent. He has reported for The Telegraph for more than a decade, covering two Olympic Games, 9/11 in New York, the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the post-conflict phases in Afghanistan and Iraq and the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.

Blast from the past

There are days when India is what a friend of mine calls "deceptively modern" but when you scratch the surface – particularly in government – you suddenly realise it's still 1976 and the Cold War is at its height.

Sonia Gandhi: Indian censorship

One small example of this has been filling the Indian blogosphere these past few days after an Indian-born (but US-based) comedian called Gautham Prasad performed a skit in which he dressed up as Mahatma Gandhi and proceeded to pole-dance to some raunchy Hindi songs, finishing up in a fetching white thong, gyrating to an hysterical audience.

It doesn't sound very sophisticated but, as you will see by watching the video which was posted on 'YouTube', it is funny, at least to the live audience. It's an old comic trick to yoke two incongruous world's together and Prasad's timing with his audience is pretty good.

It may be that by the time you read this YouTube have been forced to take the video down – though I sincerely hope not – but you can find it, and judge for yourself by looking at or search for Gandhi on this comic's website or search for Gandhi on this siteÂ and you'll find it soon enough.

The reason why the video may have gone is that the Indian government failed to see the funny side when two Indian TV news channels, IBN-7 and Sahara, decided to screen the video – ostensibly out of 'shock and outrage' at this travestying of the father of the Indian nation, but really of course, in pursuit of some cheap rating and controversy – which they duly received.

Now, on pain of withdrawal of their license, India's Information and Broadcasting Minister, Shri P.R Dasmunsi, has ordered them to issue a prime-time apology for their "assault to the dignity of the Father of the Nation."

That's what I mean by the 1970s worm-hole in Indian today – modern Indian news channels look, superficially at least, more liberal, raw and adventurous than many European ones, until the deadening hand of government censorship rears its head.

You might not like the video, you might think it unfunny or downright tasteless but surely in the world's 'largest democracy' the government can't be seen to censor in this way, whatever its feelings of outrage. It's the equivalent ITV or SKY being threatened for sending up the Queen, or Winston Churchill.

To date, I understand, the government's requested apology has not been forthcoming. Rightly so in my opinion. Today the Gandhi spoof is censored, and tomorrow what? A package on Sonia Gandhi that doesn't quite meet the expectations of the Congress Party?